THE FIRST-DAY SABBATH

     We now proceed to prove that the setting apart of the first day of the week, the day on which our Lord arose from the dead, as the Christian Sabbath, or "the Lord's day," has the unmistakable warrant of Scripture.

     1. It is warranted by Jewish types. In the Jewish feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23 we have seen one at least in which a Sabbath observance was prescribed which came on the first day of the week. Referring to the whole system of Hebrew Sabbaths Paul says they were "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:16-17). It is but fair then to regard the occasional first-day Sabbaths as types of a new dispensation.

     2. It is warranted by prophecy. "The Stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psa, 118:22-24). This prophecy unmistakably refers to the resurrection of Christ. The evidence of this may be found in the utterances of both Jesus and his apostles. (See Matt. 21:42, Acts 4:10,11, and I Peter 2:7.)

     To what else do the words, "this is the day which the Lord hath made," refer, if not to the Christian Sabbath, the day commemorative of the resurrection of Christ and in which the rejected Stone was made "the head of the corner"? Some day of special and great significance is here predicted, and expositors have failed to point out any other day as of sufficient importance to be thus incorporated with the prophecy of our Lord's triumph over death and the grave and identified as the object of the same.

     3. It is warranted from the fact that the change from the seventh day to the first took place under apostolic recognition and authority. Their first religious meeting after Christ's resurrection was "on the first day of the week," the day he arose, and was specially graced and blessed with his presence (John 20:19). Their next recorded religious service was held on the following "first day of the week," on which occasion Jesus again miraculously appeared in their midst and gave them his blessing (John 20: 26). Twenty-five years later we have the record of the disciples at Troas meeting "on the first day of the week to break bread," and Paul preaching to them, "ready to depart on the morrow," etc. (Acts 20:7). This was evidently a religious service, and Paul tarried and preached for them on that occasion, as he would not resume his journeying until the Christian Sabbath was past, which is indicated by the expression "ready to depart on the morrow." Commenting on this passage, the late Rev. B. T. Roberts has well and forcibly said:

     "The verse plainly teaches, (1) That the Christians of that early age did not meet together for worship on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. For Paul was there seven days (v.6). He must, then, have been there on the Jewish Sabbath, but did not preach to the Christians on that day, because that was not their day for worship. No other reason can be given.

     "(2) That they, the Christians, did meet for worship on the first day of the week. This was not a special meeting. It was their stated day for worship. The language plainly teaches this. It can have no other meaning. The disciples were not called together to hear Paul. They came together, according to their custom, for Christian worship. This is implied in the words, 'And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, being present, preached unto them.'

     "To say that because Paul preached in the evening, they did not meet together in the day time is too absurd to need even contradiction. What possible proof can a Sunday evening meeting be that there was no religious service there in the day time?

     "But in other places it is recorded that Paul preached on the Sabbath day. So it is, as in Acts 13:42, 16:13, 17:2, 18:4. Read carefully these passages and you will find that it was not to a Christian congregation that he preached, but to the Jews and to the Gentiles who met with them for worship.

     "Search the New Testament carefully: you cannot find a single record of the meeting together on the seventh day of the week of a company of Christian believers for worship! There is no such record. They did not meet on that day. The day on which the primitive Christians met for worship was the first day of the week."

     About a year after the meeting with the disciples at Troas Paul wrote as follows to the church at Corinth: "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." (1 Cor. 16:1, 2.) It is quite evident from this that the first day of the week was observed at that time by the churches of Galatia and Corinth as the day of their principal religious "gatherings," and was considered by St. Paul as the most suitable occasion for bringing together "the collection for the saints."

     4. The warrant for the First-day Sabbath is strengthened by the fact that the apostles were invested with authority to make such a change as we have seen was made under their administration. This appears when we consider (1) That they were inspired men, which no Christian denies. (2) That they were invested with this prerogative by virtue of the authority conferred upon them to organize and establish the Christian church and to reject or retain so much of the Hebrew ceremonial as they judged appropriate. This is the force of the following commission: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18). (3) That they were guaranteed against error in their establishment of the church and its regulations by the special impartation of the Holy Spirit to be their teacher and guide. Jesus said unto them: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). "And when he is come, he will guide you into all truth," etc. (John 16:13).

     We believe it has now been shown: (1) That there is nothing in the meaning of the term Sabbath that limits its proper observance unchangeably to any particular day; (2) that by divine appointment a change was made at the Exodus from the primeval Sabbath day, previously observed throughout the world, to a day for Sabbath observance commemorative of events pertaining particularly to the Hebrew nation; (3) that from its very character the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Hebrews was to be observed only during the Jewish dispensation; (4) that even under the Jewish economy other days than the seventh or Saturn's day (and particularly the first day of the week) were hallowed as Sabbaths by divine appointment; (5) that, so far as the best information we can get is concerned, the original day hallowed as a Sabbath in Eden would, if carried forward to the present, synchronize with the First-day Sabbath observed by Christians; and (6) that the change from the seventh day to the first after the establishment of Christianity has the warrant of scripture, in that it is typified, foretold, provided for in the authority conferred upon our Lord's apostles, authorized by the example of the apostles and the early church, and sanctioned by the special, miraculous and visible presence of the Lord with his primitive followers when first they made his resurrection day the day which they observed in Sabbath worship. These reasons we regard as sufficient to prove that the practice of Christians generally in keeping the first day of the week as the Sabbath, in commemoration of God's completed work both in creation and redemption, is in keeping with God's original plan and fully authorized by scripture.

     "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2:16, 17).